Hard on the heels of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra’s successful “New Music Festival,” early February sees another fresh initiative at the Orpheum — a two-concert “Pacific Rim Celebration” designed to tie in with the Lunar New Year.

On Saturday, Feb. 8, the Year of the Horse will be celebrated by guest conductor Long Yu and cello soloist Jian Wang in a program focused on the music and performers of China. The next evening, the spotlight is on Korea, with three soloists and a choir joining the VSO, conducted by Gordon Gerrard.

Canada’s growing awareness of our Asian and/or Pacific Rim connections is reflected in our concert halls. This year, even the rather staid Toronto Symphony Orchestra is mounting a “Chinese New Year” concert, featuring pianist Yuja Wang. It is a hot multicultural idea in the sometimes fickle world of orchestral audience development.

Here on the West Coast, the landscape is, as always, different. We did Pacific Rim from day one; engagement with the cultures of the Pacific Rim is an integral part of our basic identity, going back a long, long way. Touring companies brought Western and Chinese opera to town at the turn of the last century. The groundbreaking 1972 appointment of Kazuyoshi Akiyama as VSO’s music director was not only a great choice for an orchestra fast rising in stature, but also a de facto recognition of the excellence of Japanese conducting pedagogy. And back in the 1970s, prominent B.C. composer Eliott Wiesgarber (trained in the neoclassical idiom favoured by his Parisian teacher Nadia Boulanger) was turning to Asian music for inspiration.

No question about it: Vancouver understands and values our status as a metropolis of, as well as on, the Pacific Rim.

This year, the world of classical music recognizes the staggering importance of three new giants in the music scene: Japan, China, and Korea. Vancouver audiences have known this for years and been entertained by a stellar roster of soloists from all three countries. At the VSO next weekend, impressive soloists from China and Korea will play great concerti from the Western classical repertoire — violinist Sara Chang performs the Bruch Concerto, and a very young Serena Wang makes her VSO debut playing Beethoven.

More intriguing will be the performance of a number of compositions new to VSO audiences, written by Chinese and Korean composers. These include a piece from the Maoist era, Chen Gang and He Zhanhao’s “Butterfly Lovers” Violin Concerto, and newer works by Chen Qigang (a student of Olivier Messiaen) and Young-Jo Lee.

Perhaps the most interesting and topical exploration of all is the idea of making connections between the great music traditions of Asia and “the West.” Vancouver already hosts an active subculture that revels in such blends — new music for traditional instruments, unexpected groupings of instruments from diverse music cultures, and no end of composer/performer initiatives. Some of the results naturally surprise some audiences, but anyone who has spent the last two decades in Vancouver listening to music can’t help but be aware of this important trend.

The VSO’s “Celebrate Korea” program features a work by local composer/performer Grace Jong Eun Lee. In fact, Lee is a model pioneer. Like many other Korean youngsters, she was classically trained, on piano, violin, and other instruments. Her teacher presciently suggested she study the Korean kayugum (sometimes transliterated as gayageum), a stringed instrument with a long and distinguished history. The problem was that in Lee’s youth the kayugum did not reflect the international aspirations of the “new” Korea.

“I started when I was nine years old. One of my teachers encouraged me to play lots of instruments and to consider becoming a composer. He regretted never learning any Korean instruments himself, so he encouraged me to think about future collaborative possibilities. He felt that as a young Korean I should know our cultural traditions.”

Lee delved deeper into the instrument, and as she went from familiarity to mastery, it became part of her mission as an artist to help redefine the kayugum for the 21st century. “When I started performing in South Korea, the audience was frankly baffled as to why I wanted to play on Korean instruments. The emphasis was very much on modernization of Korean culture, not looking back on our history. Now it is quite different — in fact, there is great enthusiasm for collaborating with pop music and jazz on these instruments.”

Based in Vancouver, Lee has added teaching to performing and composing as an integral part of her career. She works with private students and has directed ensembles in a number of post-secondary settings. Basic kayugum is apparently not too difficult, although real mastery takes a lifetime.

“I try my best. Most Korean parents still want their children to study Western music and instruments. They see the piano and the violin as much easier to learn. But I am hoping the message about traditional music will slowly spread.”

Lee will doubtless make converts for her ancient and beautiful instrument when she opens the VSO’s “Celebrate Korea” program with her work “Song of Love” for kayugum and orchestra. Intensifying the idea of blending cultures and making new and perhaps unexpected connections, Lee’s piece explores another connection with history and culture by using an ancient text well known to Western audiences — “Solomon’s ‘Song of Songs,’ more wonderful than any other poem! I am always inspired by very natural and simple things, the landscape, the beach, the light, the garden, the sky and the mountains. My music will be a showcase for harmonizing Korean-Western notes, while drawing on the elegance and simplicity of nature in its purest form.”

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